Mum’s the word…

Finally, after six and a half weeks, we are sure. Boudie is pregnant! She has a fast expanding girth and when I took her to the vets to be weighed today she tipped the scales at a fairly portly 27 kgs – 2.5 kgs above her fighting weight. Only two and a half weeks left now….

Our other mum in the household – chicken Juliet – hatched 5 chicks in the end and is being the perfect mum for them. Here she is on her first trip out with her brood, teaching them to eat:

Four out of the five are ‘cou nus’, a breed that has no feathers around the neck. We find them pretty ugly, but they are popular around here, especially for eating, so it looks like we may have some of our own chickens for the freezer after all!

We have also had some sad news from our chicken house. We found Little Maran dead in the laying box yesterday. She had taken to flying over the fence and walking around the whole garden, including the woods, recently. She also layed ‘double yolkers’ and we suspect she may have died in the course of duty – laying us another egg. RIP Little Maran.

Meanwhile, we had a spot of excitement at the weekend. A couple of months back we won a helicopter flight in a draw at our local village do. We had actually completely forgotten about it when we got a call to ask if we could make it. The helicopter belongs to the family of our Mayor, M. Chicot, and the airfield is just up the road. The weather couldn’t have been better and thought short, it was interesting to have a different perspective of the local surroundings – including La Belardiere…

Back to earth, Roger has been back to work. He’s been doing what he enjoys most – making a mess, getting dirty and using his power tools! Here he is in his element…

Actually, he has done a fantastic job widening the entrance to the former stone store ready for the bits of kit from the barn we are converting!